Death Gods and Flighty Broads
by Cardboard Edward
Summary: A collection of ficlets, drabbles, and oneshots based on Anubis and Sadie.
1. that first kiss

100 DAYS TILL BOOK 3! WHOOOO! This fic is a little celebration of that. I'll be updating every couple days, up until the release. So excited! Hope you guys enjoy.

This one takes place during _that_ scene in Throne of Fire.

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><p>Sadie glanced to the left, flinching at the screams of her friends.<p>

He had told her everything he had to. He should let her go now, save her friends, save the _world_…

But he stood there too long, clenching his jaw and thinking.

He had been able to touch her hand just now, help her up, so _maybe_…

It was too selfish, too irrational. He was a God, and she was… not.

She was barely thirteen; he was over five thousand.

It was a horrible decision, really, but he decided to act on it anyway.

"Go. I'm sorry I can't do more." She glanced at him, blue eyes worried. He could give her this, a small moment of happiness on this day.

He was trying very hard to convince himself it was for _her_, that he had no gain in it for himself.

"But happy birthday, Sadie." He took a deep breath, gazing at her heart shaped face. He saw a flash of shock- or was that hope? In her eyes before he shut his own, and leaned towards her.

Warmth.

That was the first thing he noticed. Her lips were warmer than anything he could ever imagine, a jolt of heat against the dead chill he always felt. His eyes fluttered open for a half second in his shock, but he didn't pull away. He could smell her chap stick, the shampoo in her hair. He felt the softness of her lips, how she returned the kiss almost immediately, her hand on his wrist.

This was not what he was planning. He was just going to give her a… what was it called, a peck?

So he panicked. His mind reverted to the most basic fleeing tactic, and he felt the cool mist wash over them, the word darken. The pressure and warmth of her lips was soon gone. His wrist felt like it was burning.

He sighed, running his hands over his face.

Nothing ever went right with her.


	2. a matter of location

Thank you for all the lovely feedback!

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><p>If there was one thing that really irritated Anubis about Sadie Kane, completely and with no secret fondness, it was her frequent complaints.<p>

"Wonderful," She said, surveying the location. " I mean, not that I don't _love _having all our dates in graveyards or anything, but seriously, can't we go to a restaurant someone choked and died at? Something?"

Anubis gave her a dry look, seated next to her on the top of the tomb. "That's where someone _died,_ Sadie, not a final resting place."

"Same difference." She muttered, glancing at her combat boots. He swore his ability to understand English got worse from being around her.

"We could go to people's backyards, but I assume they wouldn't be too happy to see a fourteen year old girl loitering around."

"Wait, seriously? How does that work?" Her thought process was almost tangible in the air. Knowing the blonde, she was trying desperately to find a loophole.

"Family cats buried there," Anubis replied, turning to face her. "Or bad children."

Sadie frowned, brow creased in a way he really shouldn't have found attractive.

"Joking." He gave her an uncommon smile, and she rolled her eyes. "But the cat thing really is true."


	3. wardrobe changes

Anubis sat quietly, enjoying the silence crackling through the air, a rarity in moments alone with Sadie.

Of course, he didn't expect it to last long.

"Um. Question?" The permission to ask was strange, but he had a feeling she'd ask anyway.

"Yes?"

"Do, uh," Her face was bright red, and she was nervously moving her hands, "Do the clothes come off?" She said it all in a rush, as if she was about to choke on the words. "Because, you said this isn't, uh, a physical body-" her face got even redder, if that was possible, and he swore he heard her mutter "oh god, why did I mention physical," before continuing. "But you, um, always have different clothes when I see you, soooo…" her voice trilled on the last word.

Anubis stopped for a second, wondering how on Earth he was supposed to answer this. "Well… yes. They do." He answered, and she nodded slightly, eyes wide and cheeks flushing. "Why, are you cold?" The weather was always on the colder side in his realm, and he had heard her complain about it more than once.

She was only wearing a low cut tank top, leaving her pendant to dangle in a place he was sure he wasn't supposed to look at.

"What? … Oh. Yes. Bloody cold. Freezing." She rubbed her arms as if to prove her statement.

"Here." He pulled the leather jacket off, draping it over her shoulders. She looked more content then Bast did after something went her way, and that was saying quite a lot.


	4. on tiptoes

He was talking to her, though she had lost track of the conversation ages ago, content to focus on his voice and the way he was looking at her.

But she stopped, suddenly, glancing him over.

"What?"

"Are you…. Are you getting taller?"

His brow furrowed in perfect confusion, and he looked down, as if trying to see if the ground was farther away.

"…I'm not sure." Anubis said slowly, and then, "Sorry about this."

"Sorry ab-" Sadie started, and made a startled noise as he cupped the back of her head and kissed her hard on the mouth. It was remarkably different from the first time he kissed her, softly and chaste. He kissed her like he was desperate, fingers tangled in her hair. She didn't even have the time to close her eyes before he broke it off, standing up straight.

"Definitely taller," he said, sounding certain. "I didn't have to stoop so much last time."

"No," she said dazed.

"Unless you got shorter."

"I didn't."

"That's very odd, then. I shouldn't be getting any taller, or aging at all. I wonder if there's…" he gazed down at her with his impossibly brown eyes, realizing she was staring at him.

"Shut up," she said, and leaned up on her tiptoes to kiss him again.

Yes, she thought. Definitely taller.


	5. morning ritual

Sorry this is late!

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><p>Anubis yawned like a dog when he woke up, Sadie discovered. She also discovered that he did, in fact, wake up in the morning looking perfect. She sat with her chin cupped in her hands, lying at the end of her bed.<p>

"I didn't think you actually slept."

"I do," he said, and stood up. He reached his arms up, began stretching.

"I thought you just…stayed awake. And watched…" she glanced at the rocking chair. "Never mind."

"That would get very dull, I think." He bent, touching his toes with an inhuman like grace, and Sadie cleared her throat, trying not to go all red.

"If I knew, I wouldn't have let you to stay on the floor. You could slept here, you know." She patted her comforter.

"I would never take your bed from you." He said, turning to face her.

"We could have shared," she said casually. She grinned at his shocked reaction.

"Kidding," she said sweetly. Mostly.


	6. he and she

She was bright and golden and young.

He was dark and decaying, and more ancient than words could express.

She was surprised it worked out, but he wasn't.

He had been looking for the light for a long time before he met her.


	7. titles

Maddie: No worries, it was intentionally awkward. Nothing wrong with finding it funny!

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><p>"Anubis."<br>He blinked at her, eyebrows raised under the mop of black hair. "What is it, Sadie?"

She inhaled, for a moment, unusual for a girl who normally just blurted out the first thing she thought of it.

"If- metaphorically, of course, I married you, would I become a goddess?" She was almost glaring at him, with the intensity of her gaze.

He bit back a laugh with trouble. "Of course not. Why would you think that?"

"If a girl marrying a king becomes queen, and dukes makes you a duchess or whatever, why the hell doesn't it work like that for gods?" Sadie's arms were crossed tightly, bracelets gathered at the wrists.

Anubis blinked. He never thought of it like that.


	8. double date

A ficlit with a little Zarter on the side. Enjoy!

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><p>Carter Kane is staring straight ahead, feeling a heavy block of regret settle into his gut as he sits too straight in the restaurant's booth. Zia uses her index finger to twirl her straw sitting beside him, joining her date in avoiding looking at the others sitting at the table.<p>

A double date will be _fun_, Sadie said. It would be an opportunity for you and Zia to stop staring at each other awkwardly, she said. I'll take Walt, she told him.

So Carter didn't worry about his little sister's date. Walt Stone was a nice kid, he liked him, he trusted him. All he had to worry about was what on _Earth_ he was supposed to wear on a date. He was late in the end, having spent 30 minutes fumbling around, looking for an outfit, and turned up to the restaurant, ready to apologize profusely to Sadie and Walt.

Only to find a solemn faced God of Funerals standing by her side, back against the doors of the restaurant.

"Walt was busy," she hissed, after he dragged her away by the arm from her date without a word. He might have glared at Anubis a little. He didn't seem to mind. Or notice.

"So you brought _him_?"

"I didn't want to be a third wheel, okay!" She thrashed, fighting out of his grip. "And he said he could…"

"How is he even here?" Carter said, the thought just occurring to him.

"… It was the side project he was working on. He wanted to test it out, so…"

Carter stared at her, irrationally angry for a long moment, unable to believe what she was doing to Walt.

"Look, it's not about us. I want to help you and Zia out, okay? Don't get mad at me. Or him." Her mouth was set in a straight line, a sign that she would sit here and fight with him stubbornly until he let off.

Her brother sighed deeply, running a hand through his hair. "Fine. Just… don't do anything you'll regret."

"I never regret my actions," she said smugly, and returned to the doors of the restaurant, where a crowd had formed around Anubis. Carter was soon distracted by Zia, looking gorgeous and _irritated _at the fact they were all excessively late.

But now Sadie was leaning far too close towards Anubis than her older brother would like, arguing with him in a hushed tone.

The god quirks an eyebrow, says something that makes Sadie burn bright red and raise her volume considerably, and Carter makes himself look away before he throws something. Like his drink. Onto the God's head.

Maybe it would turn him back into a jackal.

He glances at Zia, who's resting her head in her palm and looking less than amused and more than annoyed. Carter makes a decision quickly.

"Let's go," he says quietly, grabbing his coat and standing up.

"What?"

"They won't notice for ages. C'mon." His desperation to get away from the two of them has stripped away the awkwardness quite nicely, and he holds his hand out to Zia.

She hesitates for a moment, and then smiles at him, adjusting her finely tailored pea coat and taking his hand.

"I think they needed this date more than we did," she mutters as they walk out of the restaurant, hand in hand.


	9. modern technology

Going to start working on the requests I've seen in the reviews, now. If you have any, tell me! Also, has anyone read the Survival Guide yet? Is it worth it?

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><p>Anubis was, admittedly, quite unfamiliar with modern technology. He didn't think anyone could blame him for wanting to look at Sadie's phone when she left it behind after meeting him in a graveyard, one day.<p>

He tapped the screen randomly, struggling to activate it. Eventually he managed to find some sort of transcript, where all the words were encased in bright bubbles in various colors.

Sadie had sent a message to her mate, Emma (he vaguely remembered her as loud and sweaty) before she had left, which explained why she kept fumbling with something in her pocket as he tried to explain the history of gravestones.

"i get reception here! i cant believe it", she had sent, with rather poor grammar, in his opinion.

"r u w/ anubis?" Emma had replied. He assumed the single letters stood for words, most likely "are", "you", and "with."

"yea. hey, is it too kinky to make out in a graveyard? cuz I really want to."

Anubis dropped the phone quickly.

He swore to never attempt to understand technology again.


	10. when you were mine

The colored streaks are gone, and her cheekbones have shifted, making her face narrow and mature.

But her eyes are as old as ever.

"Sadie Kane," he says by greeting.

She jolts a bit as she notices him in the dim light of the graveyard, where he stands as casually as he can manage.

"Anubis," she mutters softly. "You haven't aged a day."

_You have_ would probably make her hit him, so he bites back the words.

"It has been a long time," he admits, studying her features. She wears jewelry now- small earrings adorned her ears, and she donned several rings. He can still see the cord of her necklace hidden under the collar of her blouse.

"What have you been up to?"

"The same as always."

She smiles brilliantly, cocking an eyebrow. "So all the boring things… what did I used to call you, The God of Toilet Paper, I think… has to do?"

"I've gone back to routine," he agrees. "How it was before you wrecked everything."

"Made it better, you mean."

"Indeed," he says softly, serious in contrast to her jest. His brown eyes found her blue, and she looked away. It was too dark to see if she still went red when he looked at her. Probably not, he thought dryly. After all, he was a teenager, and she was now a grown woman.

"Right. Um. I have to… I have to do something," she says, looking at a spot above his shoulder. "It was… nice speaking to you again, Anubis."

"Goodbye, Sadie Kane." He dips into a half bow, and forces a smile to his lips.

"…Stone," she says softly.

He tilts his head.

"Sadie _Stone_. It's… It's Sadie Stone now."

"Of course," he says, and he notes the pain in his voice with a dry sort of curiosity. "Until we meet again, Sadie Stone."

He sees her mouth move as he fades out of the graveyard, but does not catch the words on her lips.


	11. at first sight

He watches as a spirit awkwardly shifts around the throne room, clearly unaware of where to go or what to do. It looks so lost, so confused, that he feels a strange ache in his heart, wondering if he's come across an utterly lost ghost. But there's something _alive _about it.

Anubis can't make out any of its features, just a strangely familiar glow. So he decides to ask.

"Are you a ghost?"

He sees it startle, but it's a strange sort of startle. Not a "where did this dog-headed God come from", but closer to…interest.

He is momentarily befuddled, but doesn't let it show.

It finally shakes it head, and he can feel its gaze, though he can't see its eyes.

"Not a ghost, eh?" He says, attempting friendly. It feels awkward in his throat. "A ba, then?" That must be it. Possibly its first flight, due to how bewildered it seemed, how it had a sensation of not belonging.

He decides to assist it, just a little. He extends a pale arm towards the throne, his robe shifting to reveal his wrist. The ba's gaze fell on it, instead of the throne.

Anubis has a feeling whatever going on is too important for him to remain a distraction. He takes off, feeling the shadows fall and reform around him, and doesn't let a worry about the ba fall into his head.

Well, not yet.


	12. three little words

He was the first to say it.

He didn't want to.

He _really _didn't want to.

Walt must of told her already, from the way she had been acting, and he didn't want to give her more pressure- he was completely ready to just give up attempting a relationship with her and letting her be happy with the human.

But Anubis blurted out the words anyway.

"I love you."

Sadie looked up, long hair thrown over her shoulders. Her eyes were so wide; he could practically count the darker blue specks in them. She blinked and recovered.

"I know." He must have made a face, because she quickly added, "And I love you too, but I really need to work on this spell, and you saying- those things, is, um, really distracting?" She was blushing hard, and he had to hold back a smile with an incredible amount of effort.

"Of course," he said briskly, as if this happened every day.

She turned away (with a single look back) and returned to the spell, focus like a current of electricity in the air.

He smiled openly at her back, enjoying a rare good mood.


	13. what you are

This chapter contains no spoilers!

But speaking of spoilers... whose read book 3? Let's talk about in the reviews (and if you haven't read it, don't look!)

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><p>"You're bloody confusing, you know that?"<p>

Anubis sighed patiently, prepared for another rant about mixed signals and kisses without permission.

"You're not human." She said bluntly, studying him like the museum piece he was.

"….Yes," he began, very confused. "Or, well, no. I am not. I… I'm not sure I understand what you're saying." He tilted his head to one side.

"You're not _human_," she continued, like he never spoke up, "but you act like one. All the bloody time. But you're not. You don't need to eat, you only sleep because you want to…. But you're not like any God I've ever met."

"Due to my lack of interaction with the other Gods, I based myself off humans more," he said softly. "I'm sorry if it's… misleading."

"It's not misleading, it just…. It sucks, okay? It sucks that you'll never feel what it's like to go to bed after a long day, or to be so dizzy that you have to grab onto the nearest person, or the burn of a cold wind on your face…" she trailed off, looking frustration flushing her face and causing her fists to flinch. "It's like you're not real. It's like you're not even here. I'm never going to understand…" she gestured at him. "This. You. I'll never get it, okay? And I'm sick of feeling like that."

"Ah," he said softly, and realized she had been holding this rant in for a long time. He hesitated. Sadie Kane was on the verge of tears, teeth biting down on her bottom lip, foot stamping out a pattern and about to run. This was… a dangerous situation. It beat anything he had to deal with, the past thousand years, by a large margin. Ghosts and Gods were a million times more predictable and easy to deal with than one stubborn British girl.

"Sadie Kane," he said softly, and she just _stared _at him. "I'm not quite sure I can explain… 'this', but I will try." He took a deep breath and stared at a spot above her shoulder. "It all falls away when I'm with you. The history and the powers, and… everything. I'm not the God of Funerals, when I'm looking at you. I'm a boy, who has no…" he searched for the right words, and then decided to borrow some of hers, "who has no bloody clue what to do." He sighed. "I used to hate it. Hate that I was just Anubis when I was with you, not _Anubis. _I had relied on the strength and power my entire life_. _But I started the crave the relief from the cold, the ease from responsibility, that came when I was with you… It took me far too long to realize that I simply liked you."

He stared at his hands. "It's why you always saw me like this, as a boy your age. Never the fierce jackal headed God. You lowered my defenses. You had done that to me." He finally met her gaze. She was oddly silent.

"It's the best I can offer for an explanation," he started, feeling panic raise. Oh, Gods, he did not do this right. The most terrifying moment of his life and he completely fail—

Sadie leaned forward, wrapping her arms around his torso tightly, resting her head on his chest.

He hesitated a moment before resting his chin on the top of her head.

"Thank you," she said softly.


	14. the great game

Thank you for the reviews! About when do you guys want to see post Book 3 fic?

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><p>He has begun to develop an alarming habit of watching her.<p>

It's not as unnerving as it sounds, he assures himself. She is aware, after all, of his gaze. And she stares, too, a lot more openly than he does.

She thinks his eyes are the color of chocolate.

To him, they are but the dull shade of graveyard soil.

She thinks her eyes are obvious and plain.

They remind him of the ocean, always out of reach and so, so beautiful.

Their gaze is more intimate than touch, than a kiss, than any words. Sometimes it's all they need, a fleeting glimpse when he appears in the mortal world for a mere minute.

Habit may be the wrong choice.

Pursuit may fit their game better.


	15. ms kane

Trying to clear out some of these mini fics. Three chapters in one today!

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><p>"Those are not prescription glasses."<p>

"Nonsense," Sadie tells him, her British accent particularly posh that day. She adjusts them on her nose, shifting heavy text books under her tanned arm.

"…I'm confused," he admits, frowning.

"Modern Courtship Rituals 101. Your classes are about to start."

He simply shakes her head at her for a while, before giving in and settling on a tombstone across from her.

"Carry on." He says, amused. He knows how to humor her by now.


	16. power struggle

She's stronger than him. Vastly. He doesn't really want to admit it- a God's power dwarfed by a thirteen year old girls, embarrassing didn't even start to cover it- but he's glad for it at the same time.

She is his protector, his knight, the girl who keeps the God who can barely defend himself out of harms reach.

Anubis supposes she knows, deep down, that his role is not a mysterious, benevolent God protecting her, saving her, but for now, they keep playing the game.


	17. i wanna hold your hand

This is the third chapter I uploaded today. Make sure you read all of them!

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><p>He knows he is a goner the first time he touches her hand.<p>

It is warm and it is real, and it is incredibly addictive, that touch. He holds it to comfort her, but finds himself comforted instead by her soft skin, the kiss of her body heat against his cool skin.

Anubis squeezes her hand, using it as strength to keep him going, to help him from falling to pieces. Sadie is as desperate for his touch as he is, but he flees from her, that breath of air, like the coward he is.


End file.
